


more friends than you know.

by orphan_account



Category: Glee
Genre: AU: Finn Lives, Mentions of Sexual Assault, Not Blaine or Klaine Friendly, because I said so, free kurt 2kforever, i wrote this in one six hour sitting because i'm a goblin, implied emotional abuse, let kurt have male friends 2kforever, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 10:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27349453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The four times Kurt tried to tell someone about Blaine, and the one time he didn't have to.aka The Boys free kurt.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 126





	more friends than you know.

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: i haven't actually watched all of glee since i rage quit mid season 5. i watched all the relevant klaine scenes for this, but if there are slight inaccuracies in regards to the canon timeline.... i humbly request you cut me some slack

**1\. Sebastian.**

“Blaine!” It’s a last ditch attempt at grasping to what seems to be slipping through Kurt’s fingers, but it’s no use. Before his boyfriend’s name has so much as fully left his lips, Blaine is out of sight, leaving Kurt alone beneath the cover of darkness, dizzyingly loud music thumping from inside, muffled, but still audible.    
Being alone in a seedy gay bar’s car park at night is terrifying enough, but somehow, Kurt feels safer than he had just moments ago, Blaine’s hands all over him, tugging him down, and that’s not something he wants to look into. Not right now.

Kurt can see his breath in the freezing night air as he attempts to pull himself together, part hoping Blaine will come back and apologise, and part wanting nothing more in that moment than to never see him again. Wanting to go inside and find Sebastian, and tell him what, exactly, has just happened. Or maybe just go in and yell, tell him to back off Blaine, and blame everything that’s just happened on him.

The latter is ever so slightly more prevalent in that moment, and though Kurt is unsure exactly which he will do once he finds Sebastian, his feet are carrying him back inside before his brain has even caught up with what he’s doing. His eyes scan the room, darting from person to person, the lights and music making it almost impossible to locate who he wants to.

_ Or maybe he’s found another twenty minute ‘love of his life’.  _ The bitter voice in Kurt’s head so helpfully provides, as a dejected sigh falls from his lips. What is he doing? The adrenaline, or whatever it was that had pushed him to stalk his way back into Scandals, is slowly draining from his body, as he stands there, time seemingly frozen there in that doorway. What would blaming Sebastian achieve? Making him all the more desperate to go after Blaine out of spite, or to get a reaction out of him? And what if Kurt went the other way, and told him what had happened in the back of the car? Would the guy really care? Or would he laugh in Kurt’s face, roll his stupid eyes, pull on that stupid smirk, and call him a prude, before proceeding to offer Blaine everything Kurt wasn’t?

What was there to tell him, anyway? Blaine had gotten a little drunk, a little handsy, and Kurt hadn’t been able to be fun and spontaneous enough to put out. It was hardly a violent crime, hardly worthy of pity. The logical voice in the back of his head seems insistent to remind him that  _ you’d kill someone if they did this to Rachel, or Mercedes, or any of your friends. Why are you different? _ _  
_ But another voice, one that sounds suspiciously like Blaine, one that is so much louder, says  _ this is all your fault. You’re boyfriends. You’re just not fun enough. _

The realisation sinks in - there’s no way any situation in which Kurt approaches Sebastian right now will end in anything more than tonight being more ruined than it already is. And so, Kurt turns to leave once more, braving the cold clip of the air as he heads for his car, entirely unaware of curious green eyes watching his every move from the far side of the bar.

* * *

**2\. Finn.**

“I kind of feel like I’m going to die.” Kurt’s eyes meet Finn’s, and  _ oh.  _ His brother’s gaze is so understanding, more than Kurt might like. He can remember how distraught Finn had been through the whole Quinn scandal, though, admittedly, in that moment, all of that feels like more than a lifetime ago. How had Finn ever forgiven her for it? How had he managed to rebuild the trust she’d shattered, enough to even consider being with her again?   
He wants to ask, wants to beg for a play by play on how to survive this, because it feels like the ground might open up and swallow him at any moment. And worse than that, he thinks he might just want it to.

“Guess I don’t have to ask you what you’re doing, apparently.” is what comes out instead, and what follows is a conversation Kurt feels awful for not really paying all that much attention to. He feels an empty shell of himself, sat there in the apartment where Blaine sleeps a small walk away. Pretending to be bored of Finchel gossip while secretly lapping it all up has become something of a tradition when talking to both Rachel and Finn, but all Kurt wants in that moment is to go back to bed and bury himself beneath a mountain of blankets.

The night before had given him hours to think it over, entirely unable to sleep with the boy he had once thought would be his forever beside him. For so long, he’s blamed himself. Had blamed himself for that night at Scandals, for not being fun enough. Blamed himself for Blaine’s every outburst, every hissy fit, and finally, maybe, the facade is beginning to properly crack.   
And so he can’t help himself, as Finn turns his back, bag slung over his shoulder.    
“Finn?” Kurt’s voice is uncharacteristically shakey when it leaves his lips, and it’s enough to make him flinch. How had he ever let someone make him into this? So unsure, so insecure, all the things he could never have been described as before this moment. 

Finn turns, eyebrow raised.  _ Is this my fault, too? Like everything else?  _ It’s what he wants to ask, but somehow he can’t force the words to come out. It’s not something to put on Finn, not after the hell of the past four months, and the revelation of Rachel and Brody clearly weighing heavily on him. And he doubts it would matter much, even if he did. Everyone seems to adore Blaine, seems to hail him as the greatest thing to happen to Kurt since his own  _ birth _ . Kurt can’t imagine he would enjoy hearing whatever opinion anyone has on the matter.   
“Say hi to dad for me.”  _ Coward. _ _  
_ “Will do.” Finn seems hesitant to move on, to leave, and right then, Kurt feels transparent. “Uh, was there… Something else?” Kurt’s eyes flicker to the apartment floor, suddenly the most interesting thing he’s ever seen in his life.   
“Nope. Just that.”

* * *

**3\. Jake.**

_ I don’t trust you anymore. This isn’t home anymore.  _ Kurt’s own words reverberate around his head, they’d been freeing to say, but there’s still part of him that feels, just a bit, like he still isn’t free of it all. Like the hold Blaine has on him is one he can never really be done with.

“Woah, dude.” The unfamiliar voice snaps Kurt out of the trance he’s in - he hadn’t even realised the way he was staring at the empty space where Blaine had been just moments ago. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Jake steps forward seemingly out of nowhere, somewhat cautiously, eyes narrowed, possibly out of curiosity or genuine conern, but possibly - more likely - out of a feeling of obligation.   
“Kind of have.” Is the airy response Kurt gives, before he can shake himself out of the odd feeling entirely, with an awkard chuckle. It was all a bad idea, coming here, coming to see an over the top high school production of Grease, just to reach for closure with Blaine one more time. Closure he is beginning to believe just isn’t possible. A moment of silence passes, before Kurt realises Jake is most likely waiting on him to speak. “Um, how much of that did you overhear?”

Jake seems to debate his response, before he says, “enough.” Bitterly, Kurt wonders if enough means enough to snap Jake out of the Blaine apologists club everyone seems to be in. But then, he doesn’t really know  _ what  _ Jake thinks of Blaine. “Uh, are you… Good?” There’s a slight tinge of concern in Jake’s voice, and Kurt can’t help but feel a little comforted, if only for the way his way of speaking remind him of Noah’s. For as rocky as their start had been, Kurt had become fairly fond of Puck.    
The guy was a good friend, had made him feel safe in those later years of high school. Judging by the little he knows of Jake from Blaine, he seems to be fairly similar to his half brother. Maybe that’s why when Kurt speaks, a little honesty bleeds through. Because God, he wishes he could talk to Noah right now.

“Yeah. Yeah, um, it’s just… It was a mistake for me to come here.” The look Jake gives him is nothing but confusion, perhaps a little pity, and it slams Kurt with reality. This isn’t Noah, isn’t someone he can dump all of his problems on and ask for advice. Jake had only asked because he was supposed to, because it’s the polite thing to do.   
As attractive as the idea of getting to talk to someone,  _ anyone,  _ especially someone he doesn’t really know, about everything Blaine has ever done to make him feel small and insignificant is, it’s not wanted. Not right now. “But it’s all fine. Totally fine.”

The expression adorning Jake’s features tells Kurt he doesn’t believe him, not even a little. Kurt’s not surprised, the words hadn’t even sounded remotely convincing to his own ears. It seems almost like Jake wants to say more, but thankfully, the click of Rachel’s heels on the hall floor is enough to draw the moment to a close.   
“Kurt?” Her own voice mirrors his, and he doesn’t need to ask who she’s been talking to. Apparently this trip hasn’t given either of them the closure they’d hoped.   
“Can we -” he doesn’t need to hear the rest of the sentence, before he’s nodding, and raising a hand to wipe a silent tear from his face.    
“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

* * *

**4\. Brody.**

Brody, when he’s not naked on Kurt’s vintage flea market chairs, is a decent enough guy. As much as Kurt adores his brother, it’s easy to see that Finn and Rachel seem to hurt one another more than anything else, and so really, he’s just happy to see someone making Rachel smile.    
But that doesn’t make it any easier that the two of them are ridiculously loved up, and sometimes, especially on romcom movie night, Kurt can’t help feeling like something of a third wheel.

Apparently, though, Kurt isn’t the only one feeling lonely, his phone buzzing loudly on the coffee table for possibly the hundredth time that night, and he doesn’t miss the annoyed glances Rachel is sending his way when she stands to head off presumably to the bathroom. Brody’s looks are a little more curious, and Kurt snatches the phone up off of the table quietly as possible.

Blaine, begging him to call. Blaine, asking for forgiveness, texts of all kinds ranging from apologies to subtle guilt trips to not so subtle passive aggression. It’s beyond tiring, all things he’s read before, sometimes as texts, sometimes on the cards from the flowers Blaine has had delivered to his place time and time again. 

“That Blaine?” Kurt doesn’t even have to look up for Brody to know the answer. It’s the same look he always wears when a call or a text comes in from his ex-boyfriend.   
“Yeah.” A pause, and the silence that falls between them is thick with tension, Kurt knowing all too well that Brody is looking for something of an expansion. Things go quiet, for a good few minutes, Kurt debating whether or not it’s worth it to try and open up.   
“Sometimes, I think…” Kurt’s line of sight shifts from the constant enslaught of texts to Brody’s face, one he’s surprised to find seems genuinely concerned, genuinely interested. For the first time, he isn’t afraid to talk, feels like just maybe, Brody isn’t asking to be polite, and won’t judge him for his frustrations. He isn’t going through a tough time Kurt doesn’t want to pile onto, and holds no care for Blaine whatsoever.    
And so he talks. “Sometimes I think he’s not really trying to give me a choice. Like, he’s just trying to break me down. Wear me out until I get back together with him.” The  _ whether I want to or not _ goes unsaid, but he knows Brody hears it nonetheless.

He wonders, briefly, how long Rachel will be in the bathroom. She’s his best friend, he supposes, but there’s always been something about her and Blaine. They’re close, so much so that Kurt knows she’s just waiting for the day he takes back the  _ love of his life,  _ no matter how many times he might insist otherwise.   
“If the guy can’t respect your boundaries…” Both of them know there’s no need to finish the sentence. It’s common sense,  _ if Blaine can’t respect your boundaries, he’s a piece of shit. He’s not the one. Block him. Run and don’t look back.  _ But it’s just never that simple, is it?

“Wouldn’t be the first time he’s refused to stop.” The words taste bitter on Kurt’s tongue, snippy and a little rude, and they surprise even him. He hasn’t thought about the Scandals incident in a long time, has long since thought he’s gotten over it.    
But it  _ had _ happened, and in hindsight, maybe he should’ve run then. Run away from Blaine, or run toward Sebastian to beg for help the way he almost had that night.

One look at Brody’s face, now wearing a beyond concerned expression, and Kurt has no doubt there’s no need to worry about whether or not he’ll be taken seriously. Nobody has looked at him that way, not when it’s come to talking about Blaine. Nobody has looked at him like they’re worried about something  _ serious,  _ something more than cheating, or petty arguments that will eventually be gotten over.   
And it’s a defining moment, or at the very least, it feels like one. Because Brody isn’t under Blaine’s spell, and he looks so concerned, and Kurt feels a little too much like he’s being forced, with all the texts and calls and flowers and pressure from everyone around him. 

“Kurt,” Brody begins, slowly, “what do you -”   
But, of course, he’s cut off by Rachel’s shrill voice, enthusiastically announcing her return from the bathroom. The silence that washes over the three of them as the conversation fades out is different, now, maybe at least for Kurt. It’s heavy, and there’s the implication of  _ something bad _ hanging in the air. 

Brody ends up not so quietly exiting their lives not so long after, and as much as Kurt wants to support Rachel, he can’t help but feel slighted, and just a little more boxed in than he had before.

* * *

**+1.**

_ “I’m going to ask Kurt to marry me.” _ _  
_ _ The first thing to pop into Jake’s mind is whether or not Blaine is crazy. Judging by what he’d overheard the night of Grease, by Kurt’s clear upset when Jake had asked if he was okay, they were the last couple on Earth that should be getting married. The second thing he thinks is clear. A red flag, one that perhaps he’d seen that night, but ignored. Something is very, very wrong. _

“Kurt!” The last person Kurt had ever expected to see almost running down the halls to catch up to him was Jake Puckerman, and maybe that’s why he stops so quickly, head tilted curiously. “Kurt. Hi. Uh, can I borrow you for a minute?”

**_jake puckerman:_ ** _ i know this is super weird but _ _  
_ **_jake puckerman:_ ** _ you spent a ton of time with kurt and rachel in new york right _

**_brody weston:_ ** _ yeah _

**_jake puckerman:_ ** _ can i ask _ _  
_ **_jake puckerman:_ ** _ did you ever notice anything weird about kurt and blaine? _

“Um,” Kurt scans the near deserted hallway, almost expecting someone to pop out of one of the lockers and explain what, exactly, is going on. He’s only ever spoken to Jake once, and as far as he knows, there’s no reason the guy would want to strike up a friendship now. “Sure?”

_ “I just thought you might know something.” An exasperated sigh, Jake should have known approaching Blaine’s best friend to poke around would yield no kind results. _ _  
_ _ “Sorry, bro,” Sam shrugs, brushing a piece of hair from his face, “Kurt and Blaine are total soulmates.” Jake can’t help but scoff at that - he hadn’t bought it since the Grease performance, and Brody’s testimony hardly helped. “The only person who’s ever thought otherwise was Sebastian.” _

“It’ll be quick. I just need help with, uh. With fashion… Stuff?” Jake pauses a moment, almost as though he’s waiting for someone to tell him what to say next. “Costumes! Costumes. I need help with costumes.” It’s reason enough for Kurt, he’s always been the most fashion forward member of the Glee Club, and if people want to take advantage of that while he’s here, well, who is he to say no?

_ “Alright.” Sebastian’s slim fingers wrap around the Lima Bean coffee cup, bringing the drink to his lips with something akin to an amused smirk. “I’m here. And not that I’m not flattered you took the time to stalk me on Facebook, but I do have things to do. What do you want?” _ _  
_ _ “To talk.” Despite the stories of Sebastian’s meddlesome tendencies, Jake stares him straight on, “about Kurt and Blaine.”  _

Kurt trails behind Jake, toward the familiar door of the choir room, and he is in no way prepared for what’s on the other side. 

_ “Finn?” Jake ensures the choir room is long evacuated before he approaches Finn, near sick with the puzzle pieces he’s been pulling together. “Can we talk? About Kurt?” _

The moment his eyes land on Brody, everything feels wrong, his stomach twists, because  _ he shouldn’t be here.  _ But most uncomfortable, is the man who sits beside him.    
Kurt hasn’t laid eyes on Sebastian in so long, though he’s made many an appearance in his thoughts and fears ever since the whole cheating scandal began.    
So why is he here?

“Unless you’re all having a major collective costuming crisis, I think I’ve been tricked.”

Jake moves to fill the fourth chair, and everything feels off balance. Not one of the men in front of Kurt aside from Finn have any reason to want to talk to him, and have barely made an effort to before. Not one of them even like each other, hell, if you’d told Kurt that Finn and Brody could be in the same room without death threats, he would’ve laughed.   
Maybe that’s why everything feels wrong. Something tells Kurt there’s a connection, but for some reason, it’s just one he can’t quite make.

“Sit.” Finn’s voice is soft, reassuring, but authoritative nonetheless. Suddenly, Kurt can see why he’s a perfct teacher. In front of the four, there’s one chair, and the moment Kurt sits in it, he feels a little like a child about to be lectured.   
“What is this?” The tension brought on by the following silence in the room is so palpable it could be cut with a knife, and the four men exchange knowing looks.

“Blaine is going to ask you to marry him.” Finn speaks the words carefully, almost like he’s afraid of what Kurt’s response might be. Really, he isn’t as surprised as he should be. Sure, they’ve only just gotten back together, but judging by Blaine’s erratic behavior as of late, a proposal doesn’t seem at all too much of a stretch of the imagination.   
“And we think you should say no.” Jake states, voice firm, leaving no real room for argument. 

_ We?  _ Since when are the four of them a  _ we?  _ All of it makes Kurt’s head spin, but he has a feeling he might just understand what’s going on. Memories of cut off conversations and almost confessions begin to surface in his mind, and it becomes apparent he may not have been as subtle as he’d like to think.

“I’m sorry, since when do you guys even know each other?” A vague gesture made between Brody and Sebastian.   
“It’s the magic of the internet.” Sebastian drawls, relaxing back into his chair as if he were in his own home, though the same look of concern the others wear is present on his face, and his words are missing their usual sharpness.

“Look, Kurt,” Finn starts, once more, shaking off Sebastian’s aside. “I think maybe you’ve tried to tell us all something. And maybe you didn’t wanna say it, or maybe you didn’t think we wanted to hear it, but...” There it is. Kurt’s mind scrambles to remember exactly what he’s told each of them - how much of the puzzle have they been able to piece together among the four of them?    
“But we wanna talk about it now.” Brody finishes Finn’s sentence, only grimacing a little at agreeing with his nemesis. 

“I don’t - I don’t have anything to say, I don’t know what you guys think, but -” He and Blaine are back together, Blaine intends to sign the no-cheating agreement, nothing is wrong. Not anymore. Everything’s perfect, and he’d only been overdramatic in his wallowing over the breakup, hadn’t he?   
“Kurt.” Brody’s tone is no longer soft, it’s firm and deliberate, and Kurt feels like he might just shrink into himself. “You told me… You said  _ it wouldn’t be the first time he’s refused to stop.  _ What did you mean?”   
Kurt’s eyes move almost on their own to look at Sebastian, and the flash of guilt that shows on his expression is enough to tell Kurt they’ve all put the pieces together.

“We went to a gay bar.” He begins, there seems to be no point in lying, not if they’ve already guessed. And they must care, they  _ must.  _ Because they’re here, Brody is in Lima, all the way from New York. Sebastian is among old enemies. Either Finn or Jake cared enough to seek them out. They want to listen - they’re late, but they want to. So Kurt speaks. Finally. “And he got drunk -” 

Apparently, he doesn’t get to speak for long, because Sebastian cuts him off.   
“He had two beers. Either gelhead is a lightweight, or he was tipsy at worst.”   
Kurt shakes it off, ignoring the weight settling into the pit in his stomach. “Fine. He got  _ tipsy _ , and then he tried to convince me to sleep with him in the car.”

“You said  _ refused to stop. _ ” Brody repeats, with a pointed look. “That sounds like a bit more than convincing.” Slowly, Kurt nods, and even without th need for any words, it’s then that it sinks in for all of them that this is real, that they were right about the one thing they’d hoped to God they were making up.

“It’s why you came back, isn’t it?” All heads turn to look at Sebastian, “it’s why you came back into Scandals. God, why didn’t you talk to me, Kurt? I was right there.” Kurt. Not Princess, or Lady, or some other degrading nickname. It’s the nail in the coffin of just how serious this whole thing really is, in Kurt’s eyes.

“You saw me come back in?” 

“And I saw you leave again. You could’ve - I know I wasn’t  _ nice  _ to you, but Jesus, I wouldn’t have ignored it. He assaulted you. He could’ve - he could’ve raped you.”

Kurt has no real idea of what he’s supposed to say to that, because even in his own mind, he’s always avoided those words. Because he knew what they meant, what they meant Blaine was capable of. In that moment, the band aids that had been so haphazardly slapped over the cracks in the  _ perfect Blaine  _ facade begin to peel off.

Kurt is mercifully spared from having to say anything at all, when Finn speaks up once more.   
“It’s not just that. The… The Chandler incident. Kurt, he blamed you for cheating and then expected you to forgive him for the same crap!” It’s easy to tell Finn is getting a little - or a lot - worked up, and Kurt’s ice walls slowly begin to melt. They’re right, of course they are, but it’s still a surprise that anyone’s going against Blaine at all.

“And I dunno about that much,” Jake continues, “but the guy’s controlling as hell over the club. Made puppets and crap to manipulate because we wouldn’t do what he wanted. I just think you’d be kinda miserable married to a guy like that. If that’s how he treat’s us, how’s he gonna treat you?”

“Did you guys rehearse this?” The weak attempt at a joke falls flat - of course they did, Kurt can just imagine the four of them sat in these very chairs, talking about how terrible Blaine is, and he knows exactly what they’ll have said, because they’re all things Kurt has thought himself.   
All things he’s been conditioned to believe for so long were just him overreacting. But maybe they’re not. How can they be, if there are four people in front of him willing enough to put aside their differences for this? 

“Look,” Jake rather pointedly ignores Kurt’s little shot at lightening the mood, “Blaine’s gonna ask all the choirs, Warblers and all to help him propose at Dalton. We just wanted to warn you. ‘Cause it doesn’t seem like you’re meant to be able to say no.”   
_ Oh.  _ Somehow that’s what makes Kurt feel sick, that’s what finally shatters the illusion Blaine has spent so long building in Kurt’s mind. None of it had ever been a choice, had it? Forgiving Blaine the cheating, taking him back, losing his virginity, the proposal. None of it was ever meant to be a choice. 

“I can’t say yes.” It’s a realisation, more than a statement, and Kurt notes the relief on all their faces. “But… The proposal, what do I -”

“Hey. You’re not alone here, dude.” Finn’s words are ones Kurt has heard a hundred times before, each time seemingly more empty than the last. But he believes them, now. And they make the weight of the world on his shoulders, the weight Kurt has grown so accustomed to over the years, feel approximately four times lighter. “We’re gonna help you get out of it. If you want us to.”

“Please.” 

“Done.” Brody assures him, no space for doubt in his tone, and the others nod their agreement.

* * *

When Blaine does propose, down on one knee, Kurt says no, and a proud group of four exchange knowing grins from opposite corners of the room.


End file.
